As the non-financial mainstream media begin focusing on Sunday’s Swiss gold referendum, USA Today reports a Bank of America prediction that “the price of gold could jump to more than $1,350 an ounce — an increase of 18%,” if the “yes” vote prevails. And a Guardian article, headlined “Fears that ‘dangerous’ Switzerland referendum could spark gold rush,” refers to a quote by the chairman of the Swiss National Bank, who said during a ‘sermon’ he delivered at a Swiss church, “The initiative is dangerous because it would weaken the SNB.”

But the lion’s share of the Guardian‘s quotes come from precious metals analyst and blogger Koos Jansen, who calls the Swiss initiative “merely part of a increasing global scramble towards gold and away from the endless printing of money,” adding that “While those behind the Swiss initiative have often been portrayed as crazy, they’re merely acting out of fear that their central bank is losing control of its monetary policy, and of the Swiss franc being sucked into this currency war and losing its value.”

Spot silver gained 1.5% on Friday and gold added 0.9% “after a surprise rate cut by China fueled expectations demand could rise in the world’s biggest consumer” of gold, reports Reuters. “Any measures that accelerate the spending power of the Chinese public are bound to be positive for gold,” said a Mitsubishi analyst, suggesting that it could lead Chinese consumers to “buy more jewelry and investment products.”

Also, or perhaps primarily, boosting gold on Friday was news that the Dutch central bank has repatriated 122 tonnes of goldfrom the New York Fed’s vaults, with a spokesman for the bank saying that “It is no longer wise to keep half of our gold in one part of the world. Maybe it was desirable during the Cold War, but not now.”

In a Mineweb article published earlier this week, by Lawrence Williams and headlined “Elliott Wave analyst sees big gold and silver price surge ahead,” Williams reference’s Wikipedia’s definition of Elliott Wave as “a form of technical analysis that some traders use to analyze financial market cycles and forecast market trends by identifying extremes in investor psychology, highs and lows in prices, and other collective factors.”

In addition to the analyst cited by Mineweb,Peter Goodburn, another prominent Elliott Wave adherent is Avi Gilburt, whose articles are regularly published on Seeking Alpha.

Gilburt, who is more an analyst of, than advocate for precious metals, takes up their cause in his latest missive. “I do not often write about the metals on MarketWatch,” he begins, “but have seen too many bearish articles calling for the death to the metals, so I felt compelled to speak up. While many are now saying it is time to sell metals, I will have to disagree. The time to sell your metals was several years ago. Now is the time to start looking to buy them back.”

Silver and gold futures inched up and down respectively on Monday, with the market said to be in “a wait-and-watch mode” ahead of this week’s FOMC meeting. One reason that gold “came under pressure” on Monday, reports Reuters, was “a sharp pullback in crude oil after Goldman Sachs slashed its price forecasts, citing lackluster global demand.” But it was also “underpinned” by China’s net gold imports from Hong Kong hitting a five-month high in September. This as the Times of India reports that annual Swiss gold exports to India have hit a record high level in advance of Switzerland’s gold referendum on November 30.

As gold futures inched down on Thursday, and silver added about a half a percent, Comerzbank analysts noted that “Gold and silver have recovered somewhat from their respective multi-month and multiyear lows.” This as the U.S. dollar and the euro are said to “have turned modestly corrective this week, with the euro being boosted amid disappointment that the ECB didn’t make that final leap into QE.”

With spot silver slumping 2.5% on Tuesday, and silver futures diving 19% for the quarter, the biggest drop since mid-2013, the falling price is bringing out the coin buyers. The 4.1 million 2014 American Silver Eagles sold in September more than doubled August’s total, and was the “highest since sales of 5,354,000 in March,” reports Coin News. “Silver Eagle sales for the year are at 32,251,000, the second quickest pace in the coin’s 29-year history.”

Referencing the above chart of The Disparity Index (TDI), for silver, which measures the relative position of its current price to the 40-week moving average, Gary Christenson calls attention to “the recent smash-down in silver prices and its deeply over-sold daily status,” which has led to a current daily silver TDI reading that’s “the most over-sold since the post-1980 crash.“

And in his weekly market wrap-up, Alasdair Macleod cites an exceptionally high volume of futures contracts being swapped for physical silver. “Could it be that this silver was required to be delivered to other markets,” asks Macleod, “such as Shanghai, where stocks are depleted and silver is trading at a price premium? Could it be that the acceleration of demand for silver eagles is indicative of the demand for physical silver at these low prices? If so, it is an indication that Comex is pricing silver futures too low to reflect genuine demand, and the price will struggle to go lower.”

Gold and silver advanced for the second and third session respectively, with gold said to be “getting a bid as the dollar weakened and China has announced some stimulus program,” described as a “stealth QE” that injected the equivalent of some $81 billion of liquidity into five banks. The metals were also seen benefiting from talk that the Fed will slow-walk any eventual interest rate increases, in advance of Wednesday’s conclusion of the two-day FOMC meeting. And with silver outperforming gold, Reuters reports that “a technical indicator showed Tuesday’s gains sent the white metal out of oversold conditions.”

Although gold and silver ended slightly lower on the week, they were back to being safe havens on Friday, with futures gaining about 1% each on what Bloomberg describes as “escalating havoc in Eastern Europe and the Middle East” that “boosted demand for haven assets.” Or, as a brokerage VP put it, “When you see schools shelled in Gaza and heavy artillery fire from Russia and Ukraine, people are very nervous, and you can’t blame them. As we go into the weekend, with the amount of turmoil that we have, people are going to buy gold.” An opinion seconded by a strategist who added yet another hot spot to the mix, telling Reuters that “With the news flow coming out Russia and Ukraine and you don’t know what’s going to happen in Iraq, traders are buying gold as they don’t want to get too exposed to geopolitical risks going into the weekend.”

With gold and silver futures gaining 0.3% and 0.9% respectively ahead of Thursday morning’s release of the jobs report for June, BullionVault‘s Adrian Ash tells MarketWatch that “Mid-June’s big jump aside, gold has become so boring not even U.S. payrolls are giving traders much fun right now,” but he adds that unless the jobs number exceeds 300,000, “it’s hard to see U.S. futures getting sold before the long weekend.”

This as Bloomberg reports that assets in GLD rose 1.4% on Monday and Tuesday of this week, the biggest two-day gain since November 2011. The article quotes one commodity broker as saying that “the dovish outlook from the Fed is increasing interest in gold, and we are seeing some investors return,” and cites a report from UBS AG analysts, who wrote that “Although the overall macroeconomic backdrop remains unfriendly towards gold, with ongoing QE tapering, looming rate hikes and stocks at record highs, prices have generally been quite resilient. That the aggressive ETF selling of 2013 has not made a comeback has provided ongoing support.”